Monday, December 01, 2014

Woo Hoo am I ever excited to announce that I'll be participating as an artist in Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2015, run by Nathalie Kalbach. This is my second year and if you're not familiar withCJS, it's a one-of-a-kind online event to fire up your creativity in Jan 2015. I found it totally worthwhile last year, so I am thrilled to be back.

Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with artists and crafters.

Throughout January participants get 25videosfrom 23 featured artists. And I'm one of them; we are called “JumpStarters.” See for yourself, what a lineup:

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

11/29/14 update - the winner is Jean, who wrote a song which impressed my grandsons. Thank you everyone for playing along!!!

When Traci Bautista gifted a copy of her book with me I had a feeling it would be fabulous.

Indeed!

That girl manages to pack more ideas onto each page than you can ever imagine. It is the kind of book where you read and reread every single section because there is simply that much to absorb and because yeah, you want to try it all!!

She sent me a pack of 'stuff' along with the book, so I could get an idea for the types of supplies she uses. Crazy stuff. Like a foam hair roller, pom poms, a square plastic mesh and an orange rubber thingamajig. I have no idea what it is. Turns out I absolutely love it and now use it all the time.

I am giving away a copy of Traci's book and a set of markers plus a few of her stencils so one lucky winner will be able to play till their heart's content. To enter, please leave me a comment below - say something really clever and creative. Seriously. I haven't done this for a long time, but I used to let my grandsons pick the winners on my blog contests. And yep, I am going to do it again! Woo hooooo!! You need to enter before midnight CST 11/26/14 because this will be a Thanksgiving Day project.

Be sure and leave me your email too, you know the drill, right?

And.........fyi.....a couple months ago, I did a Webinar using Traci's latest book as my inspiration. Traci appeared as a guest during the live broadcast and we had a lot of fun talking about art and all sorts of things. If you want to check that out, you can click HERE to download the project video. You can also click HERE to see that uber cool package that North Light put together for her book - pssssst, there is a custom stencil.

Last, but certainly not least, check out Traci's stencils with StencilGirl Products HERE. I am fond of all of them but have to admit that Love Collage and Tropical Floral are favorites of mine, I just *love* them.

Monday, November 10, 2014

I met Lesley Riley for the first time at Art Unraveled a few months ago. Of course I have known of her for years, she is a name brand artist in our world, don't you think? I had heard wonderful things - her generosity as a teacher, the guidance she has offered to new artist teachers, and of course her amazing talents as an artist - and yeah, she is all of that! She has invented this cool product called TAP - Transfer Artist Paper. Maybe you have used it? I hadn't!

Truth be known, I am not really one to use Transfer products. I am kind of a 'transfer idiot.' I have managed to screw up every method of transfer that I have tried. It is pitiful.

So here I am, a package of TAP sitting in front of me, wondering how I might make this work. I also had Dina Wakley paints on hand (just waiting for a try.) A match made in heaven, right?

I needed a greeting card. A special one, so special I was going to make it by hand and God only knows I don't do that much anymore. But this was a card for Maria and I wanted it to be something nice.

First up, I tried prepping a greeting card with a light wash of Dina's paints, a few lovely colors applied in a watery fashion. The paints are soft and creamy, the colors sheer and lovely. I had a beautiful background and printed a piece of my art on a sheet of TAP. When I attempted to iron it I realized I had printed the paper on the wrong side.

Ahem. Fail #1.

Second try.

I got a new card, tried printing my image again and then ironed it. Ugh, looked like crap. I had chosen an image that was way too intricate and my transfer didn't work out as I had hoped. I put too much paint on my receiving paper, thus rendering the transfer quite ineffective.

Ahem. Fail #2.

I turned the first paper over, the one where I printed on the wrong side. I decided to paint on it and selected the Trees stencil along with What's the Point from StencilGirl, creating a design with the Dina paints. I decided to transfer it to a Gelli print I had done on a map.

Yummy. When I ironed this to my receiving card, I was thrilled to end up with a clean transfer. WOW, maybe I could do transfer after all.

I proceeded to embellish with paint and collage until I ended up with a greeting card worthy of my talented assistant, Maria. I hope she likes it!!

Monday, October 20, 2014

I was a rubber stamper many years ago, back in the late 90's I suppose. Somewhere along the way, I stopped using the stamps and all the supplies typically found in that 'department' of the craft stores. You know what I mean? I started using acrylic paints and just forgot about all my stamp inks.

Thus I was so pleased to receive all these terrific products from Clearsnap and have a chance to play with them along with StencilGirl stencils.

And check out these colors, are they yummy or what!??!! I decided to work in my journal. Before starting, I painted both pages with white gesso.

My first step was to play with the inks. I decided to use Nathalie Kalbach's NEW Art Deco Wallpaper stencil from StencilGirl. I spritzed the Izink on the page, using a couple colors together. It is more of a viscous ink than the acrylic inks I normally use. Very cool though! I sprayed the ink with a little water and smushed it around, then placed the stencil on top and pressed it down against the paper. Using a baby wipe, I removed parts of the ink and when I pulled the stencil away, I had the amazing background shown above.

I was so in love with my first step it was hard for me to continue. Gosh darn I loved it! But I knew it was really too strong for me to actually make a journal page on top. After removing the stencil, I kept using the baby wipe and blurred the edges of the stencil, just keep come loose definition here and there. The ink remains open long enough for you to keep working it for awhile and that is certainly nice.

Next I grabbed Terri Stegmiller's stencil, Tossed Blossoms along with Traci Bautista's Tropical Floral Stencil. I used the ColorBox Chalk Paintbox and acrylic paint to build up the background with flowers. That stamp color on the far right (see my first pic) is just a stunning yellow, sort of ochre but brighter - I am thinking it might be Harvest? Oh my oh my am I ever in *love* with that color. And the others too, I might add. Really lovely colors and the chalk finish is really perfect for journal pages.

I saw a package of canvas flower shapes (something I had picked up on sale somewhere) and they beckoned to be use. I use acrylic paint and the white Izink to 'finger paint' each flower and then dried them with a heatgun. Using the Cat's eye stamp pad from Clearsnap, I darkened the edges to add depth. In the photo below (which is the final spread) you can also see that I used paint pens on a few flowers.

I was thrilled to receive these luscious products from Clearsnap and hope you enjoyed seeing how I used them.

2. Using the Sharpie Marker, draw funky shapes in the middle of the
contact paper. Be sure and leave a framework around the edges and don't allow
the individual shapes to touch each other.

3. Cut the shapes out from
the background. Save both parts.

4. Use either the shapes or the background on top of interesting text
pages and stencil over top of them using acrylic paint. You don't need to remove
the backing from the contact paper. The stencil tool is a foam dauber.

5. Place the mask on top of the canvas
panel so that it is blocking out parts of the panel (I removed the sticky
backing so it would lay flat, this part is optional depending on whether you
want to use this mask again). Spread acrylic paint across a rubber stamp using
your sponge and stamp on top of the masked area. Repeat several times to get
desired look.

6. Cut out shapes that you previously painted and consider assembly
options. Play with the pieces as though they are puzzle and figure out
different ways to arrange them.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Before we start, keep in mind that I was humming Viva Las Vegas the entire time I wrote this blog. Since it is now stuck in my brain, I thought it should also be stuck in yours. See how I am?

These are the stamps I got from Via Las Vegas. They were all on one sheet and I cut them apart, but I probably won't mount them, I tend to be comfortable just grabbing them without a block and they work just fine. The quality and depth of rubber is terrific; these are well made stamps.

I started on a blank journal page, this is one I had done with left over paint from another project, I had simply brayered it onto the page and added the white dots at the bottom. So it was ready for embellishment.

First up, I added several pieces of collage from my hand painted stash. You can see that I used Cascading Leaves stencil and Words to Live By, gluing them both down with my trusty Uhu glue stick.

I used the largest filigree stamp in the upper left corner. This is a really gorgeous stamp and would enhance any piece of art, I think I will be using it a lot. The other collage parts are from napkins plus a strip of Washi tape.

This shot shows another stencil, Half Moon Slant. This stencil is one of my go-to regulars - I love how it creates a linear yet also organic border and the black helped to balance the piece. I enhanced the napkin parts with my Posca Paint Pens.

But it needed a little something, hey, what about a bird!?! And yes, that was the perfect touch, a songbird from the Songbirds stencil. I am really happy with this quirky little page, see how I snuck another word in......Forget, from the StoryTime stencil. It had been a rough week for me, so my little bird will hopefully help me move on to better things.

Hope you enjoyed this quick little step out. To follow along on the Blog Hop, here is the list for today:

Monday, August 18, 2014

I met Eileen Hull through Maria through the internet, then finally in person at CHA this year. She is quite the dynamo, that girl has so much talent and energy she just blows my mind. And the things she designs!
At any rate, she sent me this Bird House, which is from a die cut she designed. The world of die cuts is intriguing to me and I can't even fathom how her brain must work since she designed this in a flat format yet it folds up to make something so darn cute. I used some painted paper to collage the birdhouse and the roof. Doing the roof I created a problem for myself (don't I always!?!?!?) when I folded it and the paper split. Uh, not what I had in mind

But since improvisation seems to be my middle name, I made it work and embellished the final project with my paint pens. All I need is a bird and I am good to go!

Next up are the rubber stamps Eileen sent. She has a good handle on what
I like (!) because she picked this completely awesome set for me
(thanks, Eileen!!) that I used on a journal page.

These stamps are super nice, excellent quality and I love the versatility. Here is my journal page before and after I added the stamped section.

I especially like how the stamp frames up my mystery handwriting. See, here's the thing......while it is ok in the "before" picture, I was bothered by the fact the writing was essentially the same size as the square/circle section, see what I mean? Not good design. By adding the 'frame', I think the "after" picture is more complete. I also added more stamping down at the bottom to give that area more weight.

Thanks, Eileen, for the chance to play with some of your toys, I like them a lot :)

Monday, August 11, 2014

After I wrote Stencil Girl, I kept thinking of more and more projects involving stencils, I swear, it is like I have a disease (slaps self in head). At any rate, here is one of my 'extra' projects.

The Copper Button Keeper

inspired by my friend Leighanna Light's beautiful work which is in the book

Supplies:

Piece of Copper

Novacan Black Patina

Matt Medium

Stencil, foam dauber

Q-tip or foam brush

Small canvas

Gel Medium (for glue)

1. Assemble copper, canvas and a stencil. Brush a strong
glue on top of the canvas and apply to the copper. Cut around the edges and
then 'wrap' the canvas with the sheet of copper, folding carefully and applying
glue as needed. Allow to dry.

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2. Use foam brush to apply Matt Medium (over the stencil) on
the copper covered canvas. This must dry thoroughly before you proceed. Once it
is dry, use a Q-tip or foam brush to apply Novacan over top the copper. The
design you have created with the Matt Medium will remain copper colored and the
rest of the copper will turn black. This happens quite quickly.

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3. Play with embellishing as desired. I used a pigment ink
pad to stamp some text across the tarnished copper, then I glued some fancy
buttons across the front and added a ribbon behind. I love the instant
gratification of using the Novacan and I'm so grateful to Leighanna for
introducing me to this cool product.